The sun is out and warmth arrives.

In the brilliant sunshine a bee was seen investigating all around the garden and also a lovely yellow butterfly made an appearance which I believe to be a Brimstone.

Unfortunately family arrangements have kept me away from the vegetable patch for most of the weekend however I did manage a few hours on Sunday afternoon.

I re-dug the area where the herbs had been in the past and dug in plenty of stable manure and finally planted out the blackcurrant bush I had bought last spring. It had been in a large pot and the intention was to plant it out whilst still dormant but as you can see from the picture it had started into life already.

It is a Ben Sarek bush which is described as early/mid-season with compact growth and some mildew resistance and a height of 4ft after 5 years.

After completing that task I went to the garden center and bought some more stable manure and all purpose compost and some seeds.

On my return I potted up 12 more of the strawberry runners into individual pots and placed them in the cloche between the rows of the early potatoes in the hope that they will fruit a little earlier than the ones in the strawberry bed and give me a longer picking season.

Finally I planted 24 onion sets between the gooseberry bush and the blackcurrant bush and covered them with fleece to keep the birds off until they get established.